APF - The Lick Observatory Automated Planet Finder
Abstract
The Automated Planet Finder (APF) is a facility purpose-built for the discovery and characterization of extrasolar planets through high-cadence Doppler velocimetry of the reflex barycentric accelerations of their host stars. Located atop Mt. Hamilton, the APF facility consists of a 2.4-m telescope and its Levy spectrometer, an optical echelle spectrometer optimized for precision Doppler velocimetry. APF features a fixed format spectral range from 374 nm - 970 nm, and delivers a "Throughput" (resolution * slit width product) of 114,000 arc-seconds, with spectral resolutions up to 150,000. Overall system efficiency (fraction of photons incident on the primary mirror that are detected by the science CCD) on blaze at 560 nm in planet-hunting mode is 15%. First-light tests on the RV standard stars HD 185144 and HD 9407 demonstrate sub-meter per second precision (RMS per observation) held over a 3-month period. This paper reviews the basic features of the telescope, dome, and spectrometer, and gives a brief summary of first-light performance.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1402.6684,
title = {APF - The Lick Observatory Automated Planet Finder},
author = {Steven S. Vogt and Matthew Radovan and Robert Kibrick and R. Paul Butler and Barry Alcott and Steve Allen and Pamela Arriagada and Mike Bolte and Jennifer Burt and Jerry Cabak and Kostas Chloros and David Cowley and William Deich and Brian Dupraw and Wayne Earthman and Harland Epps and Sandra Faber and Debra Fischer and Elinor Gates and David Hilyard and Brad Holden and Ken Johnston and Sandy Keiser and Dick Kanto and Myra Katsuki and Lee Laiterman and Kyle Lanclos and Greg Laughlin and Jeff Lewis and Chris Lockwood and Paul Lynam and Geoffrey Marcy and Maureen McLean and Joe Miller and Tony Misch and Michael Peck and Terry Pfister and Andrew Phillips and Eugenio Rivera and Dale Sandford and Mike Saylor and Richard Stover and Matthew Thompson and Bernie Walp and James Ward and John Wareham and Mingzhi Wei and Chris Wright},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1402.6684},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Accepted at PASP. Version with full resolution available at http://oklo.org/Vogt_APF_2014.pdf